Spirit Cords
by pinwheelmoon
Summary: Hakumei Issei likes to mimic people for fun. She has a knack for imitation, getting down the exact intonations of a person's speech pattern with marvelous accuracy. However, every now and then, someone comes along with a voice she doesn't quite understand, a voice with more depth than she can emulate. HieixOC HieiOC
1. Production

Hakumei rushed around a small but efficient kitchen, balancing three dishes in her hands. Everything was a mess; pots and pans littered the counters and the water was still running in the sink. The steam from the stove was cloying and salty, smelling of the home-cooked meals their father paid her to make his kids.

The four Watanabe children sat around a decidedly Western table, dressed for school and eagerly awaiting their breakfast. Each of them was TV commercial adorable, with wide brown eyes and black hair—good looks they had received from their late mother, whose picture was hanging over a small shrine in the living room.

Two of the nine year-old triplets giggled loudly with each other about a boy in their class who had glued his ear to the chalkboard yesterday. The youngest of the three swung her legs back and forth in her chair as she counted patterns on the ceiling, mumbling to no one in particular. Their eight year-old brother remained silent, propping his head in his hand, watching Hakumei scramble to get them fed and out the door on time with the faintest of smiles on his face.

"All right," Hakumei said, handing a bowl to Ayame, the middle triplet with low pig tails and a gap-toothed smile. "Natto with soy sauce —no rice, Ai's got omurice, and here's broiled fish for Hana."

Ai, the oldest, whose long hair Hakumei had painstakingly pleated into a fishtail braid an hour earlier, glanced mischievously at Ayame. She returned an equally devious grin, licking the space between her front teeth as Hakumei set down plate after plate of food.

Daisuke had already gotten himself some rice out of the cooker and was eating it plain. Hakumei patted his head when her hands were free, ruffling his black hair. He pouted, but didn't brush her away as she walked back into the kitchen.

Hakumei was about to make her own meal when Ai called for her attention, "Sis! Sis!" She spat out the nickname like she had taken a bite out of Snow White's poisoned apple. "I wanted daikon with it."

Of course she did. Ai was always trying to pull some stunt, something that would make Hakumei's life just a tintsy bit harder. Hakumei sighed and started packing up her ingredients. Once this whole song and dance started she would never have time to make herself breakfast.

"Ai, dear, there _is_ daikon with it," she said as she put the bread back in the fridge.

Ai crinkled her nose and checked under her omelet, but she pulled on it too hard, tearing the egg. Sticky, red ketchup and rice dripped all down Ai's hands. She ignored it and popped a piece of daikon in her mouth. Smug little thing—something she picked up from her father.

"Don't you know daikon doesn't go with omurice?" Ai licked her fingers and held out her food with the smirk of the devil. "I want tamagoyaki instead, and remember the daikon goes on the side."

Brat.

Hakumei nodded, jaw tense, and took a wet paper towel to Ai's sticky fingers before turning sharply on her heel to take the plate back to the kitchen.

As she was starting the stove back up, Ayame pecked at the natto with her chopsticks, stirring the fermented soy beans around with no real purpose. She sighed, as if Hakumei had disappointed her once again. "Sis, you forgot to give me rice."

"You said you didn't want rice," Hakumei said over her shoulder, working on Ai's tamagoyaki.

"No I didn't," Ayame whined, thick and syrupy.

Liar.

Hakumei's grip on the frying pan tightened. "Sorry sweetie, where's my head today?" She turned off the stove and quickly added rice to Ayame's natto.

Ayame checked over the next bowl and waited for Hakumei to get settled in the kitchen before calling her back over to the table. "This is soy sauce, Sis."

"And?" Hakumei knew where this was going, and she was already headed toward the rice cooker to make a new bowl.

"I want sour plum."

Hakumei's nostrils flared with an aggravated breath through the nose. "All right, sour plum natto with rice coming up."

"Sis?"

Hakumei sighed and turned to see Ai, out for blood. "I'm thirsty. Get me juice."

"Of course." Hakumei handed a third bowl to Ayame before trekking to the fridge and grabbing the first thing of juice she could find. She poured a glass and gave it to Ai. "There you go, love."

Ai took the glass and huffed. "I want melon."

"Sorry, dear. Let me take care of that for you…" Before she wasted anymore food or effort, Hakumei turned to the table. "Does anyone else want juice?"

Ayame raised her hand. "Make mine tea."

"Sure thing." It takes forever to make, but sure, why not?

Hakumei dumped Ai's glass of peach juice back into the carton just as Hana lifted her head. She had been staring at her plate from behind the choppy fringes of her short hair. "I'll take a glass of peach juice, please." At least she was polite.

Hakumei dropped her head back and took a deep breath. All three girls got their respective drinks. She even fixed Ai's tamagoyaki with daikon before the next complaint was made, but it was too good to be true. Hana had finished her juice, but still hadn't touched her meal. She looked up blankly. "I don't like mackerel…"

Hakumei ground her teeth as she made Hana salted salmon instead. Hana took a slow bite and put her chopsticks down. "I'm not hungry anymore."

"All right, breakfast's over. Let's go before we miss the metro." She heaved a sigh of relief as the triplets scurried out of the kitchen to grab their backpacks, leaving her to clean up the mess. Only Daisuke stayed behind to clear the table. Hakumei used the opportunity to put the rejected breakfasts in her lunch box. Somebody had to eat them.

"You shouldn't let them walk all over you like that. You know it only encourages their behavior," Daisuke said from behind a stack of dishes. He stood on his tip-toes and carefully slid a stack of dirty dishes onto the kitchen counter.

Hakumei took a bowl from the top and started rinsing it out. "And _you_ know that at the first complaint to your dad I will be out on the street living in a box until I can find a new job." She put the bowl in the dish rack by the sink.

Daisuke bit his lip and handed her some chopsticks. "You could always live with your parents," he mumbled.

"Too far away. Are you trying to get rid of me?"

"N-no, I was just saying-"

"Look my little prince, watching you guys is a pretty cushy job." Daisuke slumped over the kitchen sink as she interrupted him, squeezing and releasing the sponge in his hand and watching the soap bubbles fall across his fingers. "I wouldn't want to ruin it for myself, especially while I'm still in school."

He frowned and rinsed off his hands before walking to the door to pull on his shoes. Hakumei was quick to catch on. "Dai," Hakumei came up behind him and kneeled down to his level. "The payoff here wouldn't be worth it if it weren't for you. You know I just adore you."

"It would be the same," he said, clutching the straps on his back pack too tight.

"Oh don't be like that." She smiled and tapped her cheek. "Come on, give us a kiss."

He pecked her on the cheek and ran out the door to hide how red his face was, cute as a freaking button. Hakumei locked the door behind her and joined the kids. Her own school was a couple of blocks away from theirs, though hers was public. They took the same train to get there. Like every other day it was a struggle to sit together, but today Ai, Ayame, and Hana were just a few seats away from them when they boarded the metro.

Location was one of the reasons she had chosen to take this job, besides having a lot of patience and being good with children… and the free accommodations. Despite the terrible threesome, the job description was actually pretty good, even if it was a little difficult to get all her homework done sometimes.

Once they reached their stop Hakumei had to rein the girls in before they ran off too far without her, but she ended up letting them walk a few feet ahead as long as she could keep an eye on them.

Daisuke kept close to her, and she put her arm around him. He didn't complain. He didn't say much of anything, but she could practically feel the steam rising from his flushed ears.

As they weaved in and out of the busy foot traffic, Hakumei sensed something coming through the throng of people. She wasn't expecting anything really, just a notion in her gut that told her to pay more attention to the people around her.

So of course she didn't. Daisuke looked up just as she walked into someone. She dropped her bag, but left it lying on the pavement. A passerby stepped on it by accident and looked at them apologetically as he went on his way.

"You're so clumsy Sis," Ai said.

Ayame snickered. Hana didn't notice everyone else had stopped and kept going until Ai roughly pulled on her hand to bring her back to the group.

"Oh shut up, Ai. What do you know?"

She stuck her tongue out at Daisuke. "More than you, dummy, I'm the oldest."

Ayame looked affronted. "By like, two minutes."

Hakumei looked down at them, "Behave, all of you, you know better."

The person she had bumped into was about a head taller than she was, but she recognized his uniform. He was already in high school, a good high school at that.

She was about to say sorry, but he beat her to it. "Excuse me, I didn't see you."

It was his voice that struck her, like fingers on a charged sweater- quiet, unexpected, and surprisingly painful. She was taken aback by the power in it, the ruthless wisdom… It was unnatural.

In the midst of Hakumei's static aftershock the stranger paused, sharp, regarding her. He slowly leaned down to get her bag. "Are you all right?" he asked, not taking his eyes off her.

She noticed his voice was not the only striking thing about him. Red hair, long and healthy, if not clashing horribly with his uniform. Deep green eyes. No Japanese person had those features, and he didn't look like a delinquent. Then again, she had gone through the long process of bleaching her own wavy, mid-length hair, now a pale honey-blonde, and she wasn't a punk either. She even pulled her hair back into a severe bun while she was in school to make herself look more respectable in class.

The thought occurred to Hakumei that he might be half Caucasian, but somehow she knew that wasn't right… Daisuke rushed to pick up her school bag before the redheaded stranger could, breaking through the haze she had been lost in. He made a face at the man before snatching the bag out from under his fingers.

"Hakumei, here. We're going to be late." He handed her the bag and clung defensively to her skirt, glaring at the stranger.

Hakumei shook her head, clearing away the rest of the fog that had settled over her. "Sorry Dai, I'm fine." She looked back toward the stranger as she wrapped her arm around the back of Daisuke's head, twirling her fingers in his hair absently. "I apologize, but I have to get them to school. I hope you're okay."

The stranger nodded, "No harm done," and watched her turn, collect her siblings, and head toward Narau Elementary, a gossamer ribbon of spirit energy trailing out of both her ears.

"Curious," he said as he put his hands in his pockets. "I wonder if Yusuke knows."

* * *

"That guy was weird-looking," Daisuke said, cheeks puffed into a scowl as they approached the school.

"Are you kidding?" Ayame snapped, "He was absolutely gorgeous! So tall, he had to have been a foreigner. Exotic…"

Daisuke and Ai rolled their eyes. "Yeah, yeah. What a dreamboat. We get it," Ai said.

Hakumei laughed unsteadily. "Well, he was definitely interesting to say the least. Go on now and be good—" She stopped to pull Hana away from a piece of dried squid that missed the trash, "Hana, don't touch that. It's unsanitary."

"But he's lonely…"

* * *

Hakumei was still thinking about the feeling that man had given her as she watched the siblings walk inside the school gates, pushing each other and racing to see who would get inside first.

The stranger had stunned her, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized she should have been more afraid. Under that pretty face he was hiding an instinct, an animalism she couldn't hope to understand. She was suddenly glad she had bumped into him in a crowded place.

She shuddered and looked at her watch. 8:26 am... Hm, four minutes until class starts.

"I'm gonna be late!" she shrieked and raced down the block. "Mr. Fujiwara's going to mutilate me!"

She forced her way through the crowd, knocking a couple of people over as she sprinted toward her school. She could see it coming up around the corner and she grabbed hold of a lamp post and swung around it to keep up her speed as she turned. The gates were just ahead. The grounds were deserted save for one kid in a green uniform who was waltzing off campus like he owned the place. Hakumei didn't have time to slow down before she collided into him.

Luckily he had more coordination than she did and managed to keep them both on their feet, "Hey, Issei. You oughta watch where you're going eh? You might hurt somebody."

She winced at the twinge of… different… in his voice. It hadn't always been there, not since his creepy accident. Yusuke Urameshi back from the grave; the rumors were endless. She didn't want to think about it.

"Sorry Yusuke, I was in a hurry," she struggled out of his grasp as the tardy bell sounded. "Ah! I'm dead!"

She left him in her dust, disappearing through the front doors. "It ain't all that bad…" Yusuke lightly scratched the side of his face, confused. "Whatever." He shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets, whistling as he headed toward the arcade. "Time for some of that good ol' R and R."

Hakumei tripped over herself trying to run and put her school shoes on at the same time. The bell stopped ringing as she hopped up the steps two at a time. When she finally burst down through the door, Mr. Fujiwara was just unpacking his own bag.

"Ms. Issei, glad to see you could join us. You do realize that this is the third time you've been late this week?"

"I'm sorry sir…" Hakumei said, bowing quickly and taking her seat in the middle right, by the wall. She really blew it this time. "I have to drop my siblings off before I get here."

"We'll talk after class."

Hakumei slumped into her chair, sliding as low as she could without falling. The other students were whispering about it. This late in the year everyone in her class had already figured out she wasn't some blonde rebel without a cause, but sometimes they still wondered, especially when she was late all the time and didn't show up to morning club meetings.

"Quiet down now. Today we're going to be discussing your next project, and you want to listen because it's worth twenty percent of your grade. It'll be a group effort, so-"

The classroom was buzzing—people giving each other knowing looks, pointing, "You're with me, right?" and other similar questions. Some flirting was involved. Hakumei would just wait and pair up with one of the other kids who didn't particularly care who he was with. She didn't really have a lot of time for a social life outside of school. There was no one in her class that she was dying to partner with… although Koji Tanaka had a really good grade in this class. It'd be nice to not have to do all of the work.

She was about to lean forward to get his attention when Mr. Fujiwara turned away from the chalkboard. "PRODUCTION" now printed in white behind him.

"I said quiet, and don't bother cozying up to your besties. I've already picked the groups." He took a list off his desk and straightened his glasses. They were too big for his slender face, and slipped down his flat nose more often than the usual pair. "You'll be sitting by your partner from now on, so everybody stand up and be ready to move."

The usual groaning ensued as everyone packed up their stuff and moved to the back of the room. When Mr. Fujiwara started calling out names Koji was one of the first to go. Hakumei blew her bangs out of her face. Typical.

Students trickled back to their seats two at a time. The number of acceptable partners was dwindling fast. Hakumei was sure to get stuck with the brunt of the work on this. That was just what she needed.

"Ms. Issei. Mr. Kuwabara. Please take the third row seats by the window."

Kazuma Kuwabara, the only other person in class who bleached his hair. Figures Mr. Fujiwara would pair the two of them up together, not that he seemed to mind or even notice the obvious similarity between them. At least she got a window seat.

"All right, Hakumei! You ready to get your learn on with the amazing Kuwabara?"

He had one of those strange voices too, besides what most people heard, it simmered with a quiet intensity, just underneath the surface, but unlike Yusuke, Kuwabara had always sounded this way. Hakumei was used to it by now.

"Sure Kazuma," she said, putting her books in her new desk.

"You should call me Kuwabara," he laughed, "Makes me sound tougher."

"Oh sorry," she smiled. "I think you've told me that before."

He grinned as Mr. Fujiwara called out the last group and began explaining the project.

"Since this class is all about studying the art of theater, I will be counting on all of you to produce another class talent show, hopefully better than the dismal effort you put forth last time."

Everyone cringed.

"Don't freak out just yet," he said quickly, noting the panic, and in some cases nausea, on his students' faces.

"I realized not all of you are taking this elective because of your creative genius." He glanced at Natsuko Nakamura in the third row and she hid her face behind her open textbook. The entire class remembered the fiasco that was her last project, which ended up evacuating the entire school for the day. "This will be encompassing everything involved in putting on a production. Lights, sound, costumes, and of course, the show."

This didn't make anyone feel better, and Mr. Fujiwara could tell. He sighed.

"If you're not good at any of the things I just mentioned, then why you're taking this class is beyond me. However, part of management, another important aspect of production, is finding someone who is good at what you're not. In other words…" He crossed his arms and leaned against the front of his desk. "I'm giving you license to cheat. If you can't do it, then find someone who can make your vision a reality. That's what showbiz is essentially about. I will of course, require an original plan before you start 'hiring'. It still has to be your idea."

Hakumei glanced at Kuwabara out of the corner of her eye. He was scribbling down everything Mr. Fujiwara said word for word, looking very pleased with himself for being such a good student and all. She got the feeling he was trying to impress her with his avid note-taking, since it wasn't something she'd seen him do often. At least she knew he was going to do his part, if only for the fact that he thought she was cute.

Based on his reputation she knew he could probably beat people up with Eye of the Tiger playing in the background, though she doubted that would be appropriate, or if he even knew that song. Based on his last project she knew he was capable of a few slick dance moves, but not enough to do an entire performance. A comedy act might be suited to him, the big friendly dope. She had done imitations for the last show, but she doubted Mr. Fujiwara would let her do the same act twice. This was already a second chance for the people who failed last time. Students who did well, like Hakumei, would be excused from the final by preforming again.

"All right, the spotlight's on you, so to speak," said Mr. Fujiwara. "You have the hour to discuss ideas. I'll be walking around if anyone has questions."

Kuwabara sat sideways in his seat and leaned forward with his notebook, apparently Hakumei's desk was the scheming area. She leaned away from him, but he didn't notice.

"Yeah I'm not so good with the artsy fartsy stuff so I was hoping you could be on stage and I could be in charge of making you look pretty, heh heh. I'm not the best with lights and junk, either. Maybe you could sing and I'd just have a spotlight on you, nothing too fancy. You know what I'm saying?"

She could sing, maybe. If she had time to rehearse. She wasn't really a victim of stage fright. It's not like her classmates haven't heard her sing before. That is why she took this elective. Well, music was full, but the Fine Arts Club that met before and after class consisted of chorus, drama, and band students. Hakumei always went after class because she was too busy in the morning.

"If we wanted to do something like that we could do one of those old, slow songs... You know, like Jessica Rabbit type stuff."

"Minimal movement for you, minimal technical work for me. I like it—it's sexy."

"Emhm," Hakumei said, more enthusiastic because Kuwabara knew what she was talking about. "We could just get a karaoke version, hook it up to some speakers, and call it a night."

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm talking about. You and I make a pretty good team, Hakumei. We should go out to celebrate."

"I think it might be a little too early to celebrate, Kuwabara..." He was really in her face now, grinning and wiggling his eyebrows like a doofus. Hakumei leaned back until she was up against the window, looking at everyone and everything thing in the room that wasn't Kuwabara. "But we could go to a karaoke box after school and pick out a song."

"It's a date!"

"It's not a date."

* * *

Hakumei spent the next hour working on homework from other classes. There really wasn't much else they could plan without picking a song first. Kuwabara played Tetris on his Game Boy under the desk. She peaked in on his progress from time to time. He was _way_ too good at it. Hakumei was terrible at video games. She couldn't even keep her tamagotchi alive for more than a couple of days. She pouted at the lavender, egg-shaped key chain dangling from the shoulder strap of her bag. Poor Jean-Pierre. He never had a chance.

When everyone was getting up to go to gym, Kuwabara gave her a peace sign and winked. "See ya later, baby." Hakumei just waved, smiling awkwardly and hoping he called every girl that.

Mr. Fujiwara was waiting for her after everyone else had left. He folded his fingers together over his desk. "You have to take care of your siblings, eh?"

Hakumei chewed the inside of her cheek. "Yeah, I have four of them. They're a… They're a handful."

"That's funny, because your listed address is the Watanabe residence, and they have four children who are currently elementary school students. Coincidentally, their nanny's name is Hakumei Issei. Why do you think that is?"

Hakumei sat on the desk across from his and looked at her feet. "You said it was a coincidence."

"Well I have another idea. Would you like to hear it?" Hakumei shook her head. He continued anyway. "I think it's because taking care of your 'siblings', as you call them, is your job. Am I right?"

Her shoulders slumped. "Yes sir."

"You know it's against the rules to have a job while you attend this institution. You have to quit. You're late all the time and you skip all your morning club meetings. It hasn't affected your grades as of yet, but it's only a matter of time."

Her head shot up. "That's not fair. Mr. Watanabe doesn't even pay me. He just lets me live in his house so it's more convenient for me to watch his kids. I'm more like his oldest daughter than his nanny. I do everything an older sister would do and be pardoned for."

"That may be, but the fact remains that—"

Hakumei stood up. "Please, if I quit, I'll have to move back in with my parents on the other side of the city. This school has a really good fine arts program."

"Isn't there someone else you could stay with? A friend?"

"Mr. Fujiwara." She raised her eyebrows at him. "You know me. I don't _have_ any friends."

Mr. Fujiwara couldn't deny that. She was by herself more often than not. He coughed lightly, "… A relative perhaps?"

"Don't you think I would already be staying with a relative if I had the option? Please don't do this to me."

Mr. Fujiwara took his glasses off and massaged the bridge of his nose. "I'm going to have to give this more thought. Go to gym. We'll talk later on this week after I figure out what to do with you."

"Okay, okay just… really think about what you're doing here. Please?" Hakumei took a panicked breath, squinting away the coming tears. "I've never been more than ten minutes late, and lots of kids skip morning club meetings for less. At least I go to the ones after class, and—"

"That's enough Ms. Issei," he sighed, "I need to think."

Hakumei left the room just as a girl with short brown hair was about to open the door. Keiko Yukimura jumped and nearly dropped her papers, undoubtedly forms for the talent show from the student council. She was their class representative after all.

"You scared me," she said, holding a hand over her pounding heart.

Hakumei managed a smile, "Sorry."

Keiko paused in the door way to really get a good look at her. "What's wrong?" she asked, noting Hakumei's glossy hazel eyes and slumped posture. "You don't look so good."

Hakumei snorted, "Gee thanks."

"That's not what I meant. Are you okay?"

"Yeah… Yeah, it's just been one of those days, but I have to go to gym now." Hakumei motioned down the hall and turned away, heading toward the stairs. "See you around, Keiko," she said over her shoulder.

Hakumei left her standing in the hall, clutching her stack of papers to her chest and unsure of what to do. "Okay, uh… Feel better."


	2. Skin

Thank you to everyone who my reviewed story. I really appreciate it!

Crazy anime chick since 1993

Hakudoushi9

Mango-sama

Heve-chan

Shadowsammy

And a special thanks to LustfulCrimsonSin13 (dA) for supporting my story, letting me bounce ideas off her, and for drawing fanart of Hakumei. I will post a link if I get her permission to do so.

* * *

Hakumei stripped off her tights, leaving them in a black wad on the locker room floor. It smelled like body spray and city water and she changed into red bloomers and a white t-shirt to whispered gossip. The one thing Hakumei hated most about gym was the uniforms. She could hear her classmates pointing at her back as clearly as if they had announced it.

There were still a few minutes before the girls had to meet outside for roll, more time for her to be the center of attention. She pulled on her socks, white with red stripes encircling her calves. White sneakers. She tied the laces slowly, and when she was done with that she resigned herself to staring at her bare legs, praying that the movement for unisex uniforms would pass before she had to go through her entire school career exercising in shorts that barely stretched over her underwear.

It wasn't that she was unfit; she got plenty of exercise in gym—an hour a day six days a week. It was that her legs were marbled with long, jagged scars. Hakumei traced the marred tissue along the surface of her thighs as if the word ugly had been branded there.

For the most part the other girls left her alone, but occasionally someone was curious enough to gather the courage to ask, "Oh my god, Hakumei. What happened?" Hakumei would answer simply and smile when the truth wasn't as dramatic as her classmates had hoped.

Though she typically wasn't insulted for her appearance, every now and then Hakumei would have to deal with some girl having a bad day who couldn't keep her remarks to herself. She tried not to let it bother her, but sometimes she found herself wishing that she had gym with the boys instead of the girls. They would probably think her scars were cool.

A shadow fell over her knees and Hakumei looked up to see Keiko standing over her.

"Hi?"

Keiko's eyes were defiant, daring Hakumei to refuse whatever she was about to propose. Hakumei's gaze shifted. Was Keiko mad at her? Why? Natsuko and Karin were standing behind her, looking guilty and afraid at the same time. Maybe it was them?

"Uh—"

"Play volleyball on my team today," Keiko demanded.

Oh.

Hakumei smiled, a little confused by Keiko's expression, but happy. Keiko really was the class sweetheart. Maybe she could pretend the ball was Mr. Fujiwara and let out some frustration.

"Sure, okay."

"Good."

The lockers were suddenly very interesting to Keiko, and Hakumei could tell that she was trying really hard not to look at her legs, which was almost worse than the blatant staring she usually got. "As long as you relax," she said with a pointed look.

Keiko blushed.

* * *

Yusuke this and Yusuke that. Hakumei knew that the two were friendly toward each other, but she had no idea they knew each other well enough for Yusuke to be the subject of an entire conversation.

She and Keiko were talking about a homework assignment a few months ago when Yusuke waltzed up to Keiko and chatted away like Hakumei wasn't even there. Something about Keiko making him ramen quickly turned into a complaint about him lowering the class attendance average and making Keiko look bad as class rep. Keiko eventually got around to chastising him for ignoring Hakumei and properly introduced them, and Yusuke sometimes remembered who Hakumei was.

Now Keiko talked about Yusuke and how none of the rumors about him were anything close to reality. Apparently he's more like a lamb than a dangerous thug, though Hakumei doubted Yusuke hadn't earned at least part of his incredible reputation, which brought Keiko to the reason she invited Hakumei to play on her team. Her friends repeated some wild rumor about Hakumei being kicked out of a gang, which may or may not have been Yusuke's gang, and it really got under Keiko's skin. She was tired of hearing outrageous lies about people she knew.

"Keiko, people don't bully me. I really doubt that anyone actually believes I was in a gang. Sometimes it's just more fun for them to imagine that I was."

"Well it's still rude," Keiko huffed. She jumped and spiked the ball, scoring a point. The ball bounced from hand to hand. Natsuko hit the net, and the ball rolled into another court. They all broke for water at the whistle.

"So," Keiko said, sitting on a bench with a plastic water bottle sweating in her palm. "What did happen?"

Hakumei wondered when Keiko would be comfortable enough to ask the question. She took a sip of her own water and looked up at the sky. "I got attacked by a dog," she shrugged.

"Seriously? How?"

_Hakumei, four years old, waved goodbye to her mother and adjusted her backpack. There was something in the air that day, something in the sound of the leaves falling in the wind, an unusual hush over the normal racket of bikes, children, and cars that rang through the streets. She had wanted to stay home because she was afraid to go outside, but her mother had put her daughter's worries to nonsense and pushed her out the door with her lunch box, a peck on the cheek, and an "I love you, baby doll. Have fun at school."_

_She had whispered. Why was everything a whisper?_

"When I was little our neighbors at the time had just adopted a tosa. It was a rescue from a fighting ring and they volunteered to help rehabilitate abused animals. Really nice people."

_Hakumei walked hunched over, flinching at the lack of sound, straining to hear that comforting loudness of a busy morning. The cars were still there, the kids were still zooming past on their bikes, still ringing the bells on the handles. Why did everything seem so muted?_

_She saw something move out of the corner of her eye. The front door of her neighbors' house opened with a soft click, and the sound came rushing back like a flood. It hit her with tidal force, almost knocking her backward in its wake. Her neighbor screamed as the leash was wrenched from his fingers with a violence that pulled him down through the door and into the front steps. He didn't get back up._

Hakumei took another drink. "Anyway, he got out while I was passing their house on my way to school and started chasing me down the block. I tried to climb a tree, but he grabbed me before I could get myself onto the first branch."

_Hakumei froze with the crystal clarity of the noise. Sharp claws raking across the concrete. Saliva dripping from its gums in thick globs. The guttural growl rising from its belly and erupting from its throat, rumbling between its teeth. The dog was speaking to her with an energy that permeated off the subtle swish of every strand of fur. Kill, it said, over and over again until she couldn't hear anything else. Kill._

_She ran._

"My legs got the worst of it, but I have some smaller scars on my back, and there's one above my eyebrow."

Hakumei lifted up her shirt and leaned forward to reveal some small marks, hardly noticeable around her shoulder blades and lower back. Her hands had some thin lines trailing down the knuckles. She pointed to a scar as small as an eyelash above her left eye. Keiko leaned in and squinted, tilting her head to the side.

"Wow, I can barely see that at all."

_The dog ripped into her legs. Her skin tore like thick, visceral paper with a snap of its jaws. Blood seeped down into the grass, wet and fluid, as she tried to curl into a ball. Screams echoed in the background and she covered her ears with her fists, pleading for the quiet to come back._

"Eight stiches. It healed up really well," Hakumei said, "Could've lost my eye though."

* * *

"Doesn't it get hot wearing tights every day?" Keiko asked on their way back to the locker room.

"Not really." Hakumei shrugged. "It's not so bad with the summer uniforms. I'd rather be hot than stared at anyway."

"Most girls would like to be both," Keiko said with a small laugh. "So what are you doing for the talent show?"

"I'm singing and Kuwabara's handling stage work. You?"

Keiko rolled her eyes as she pulled her skirt up. "Goro wants to recite poetry, and I have to help him write something 'heart-wrenching and relevant to the plight of the people.' What song do you want to do?"

Hakumei snorted. Goro always did take himself a little too seriously. She pulled on her sailor shirt and fixed her hair, which had fallen out of its bun during their volley ball game. "Not sure yet, Kuwabara and I are going to pick one out after school today."

"Well I can't wait to hear it. You've always had a really pretty voice."

"Thanks, I wish I could say the same thing about Goro's poetry."

There was a pause of quivering lips and escaping snickers before the two burst out laughing.

Hakumei and Keiko walked together on their way back to class, agreeing to go shopping after school some time, maybe Keiko could even get Yusuke to go. While it was a nice sentiment, Hakumei figured that they would probably never hang out outside of school, let alone get Yusuke to go shopping with two girls.

* * *

The Fine Arts Club was cancelled that day so students could work on their acts for the talent show. Hakumei traded her school slippers for a pair of brown boots that stopped at her ankles. If there was one girly vice Hakumei allowed herself, it was boots. In fact, she didn't have any other type of shoe—save for regulation footwear provided by the school. She happily tied the laces and went out to the front gates to meet Kuwabara.

He was lying outside the school gates with a vast array of bumps and bruises on his face. His nose was pointing, bent, to the left. Yusuke was standing over him, cackling.

"Oh, come on Kuwabara! Is that all you've got?"

"I'll get you, Urameshi," Kuwabara wheezed through his mangled jaw.

Hakumei bit her lip and stepped forward, leaning down to get a better look at her project partner. "Are you, you know, okay?"

Kuwabara sprang to life, spry as a gazelle. "Oh, hey baby, I didn't see you there."

"Issei, what are you doing hanging around someone like Kuwabara?"

"Step off Urameshi, we're going on a date."

"A date! Ha! Who the hell would want to go on a date with your ugly mug?"

"It's not a date," Hakumei said.

"You watch your mouth Urameshi, I've got lines and lines of chicks just waiting to go out with yours truly," Kuwabara said, pointing at himself with his thumb.

"Lines and lines?" Hakumei asked blankly.

Yusuke fell over, clutching his sides. Kuwabara jumped over Yusuke rolling on the ground to kneel beside Hakumei.

"Hakumei, baby, that's not what I meant!"

She shook her hand out of Kuwabara's grip and stepped away. "It doesn't matter Kuwabara. We're not going out." She turned to Yusuke, who was picking himself off the sidewalk. "We're going to the karaoke box to pick out a song for the theater project."

"I didn't know you sang Kuwabara," Yusuke wiped a tear from his eye and held his hands out in the girliest of fashions, prancing around Kuwabara in circles as if he were wearing a dress. "Do you write poetry too or is karaoke enough to express your widdle feelings?"

Hakumei cut Kuwabara's retort off before things could get out of hand. "Actually I'm singing, and Kuwabara is going to be my stage hand."

Yusuke blinked, looking at her. "You sing?"

"I do…" Hakumei said, unsure of where this whole thing was going.

"Cool, can you sing something right now?"

"I've never heard you sing either, and I actually go to class," Kuwabara said.

"You never go to club meetings after school, though." She glanced at Yusuke, "If you want you can come with us to the karaoke box."

"What? No! He'll ruin our date."

"It's not a date."

"Yeah, all right," Yusuke said, considering the idea with a stroke of his chin. "I've got nothing better to do." He wrapped his arm around Hakumei to get under Kuwabara's skin. "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

"Beautiful my ass," Kuwabara muttered from behind them.


	3. Karaoke

Thanks to DrunkFox and Crazy anime chick since 1993 for reviewing! c:

* * *

Kuwabara fiddled with the microphone in the middle of the room while Yusuke and Hakumei sat on a circular, red couch and looked through thick binders of music. The place was lit like a night club and it was hard to see the print under the glossy plastic covers, especially when she was looking for the English titles, a language she only knew bits of because of two years of class and a love for foreign music that bordered on pretentious.

"Why are we looking through the English junk? I don't even know what any of these are," Yusuke said.

Hakumei shrugged and kept looking for a song she recognized. "I just like foreign music better, and since Kuwabara understood my Jessica Rabbit reference in class, I'm guessing he likes foreign stuff too."

"Jessica who?"

She looked at Kuwabara to join her in pitying Yusuke's regrettable ignorance. "She's an American cartoon character."

Kuwabara nodded sagely, leaning on the microphone stand. "Never knew you were such a patriot Urameshi."

"What, like Disney and shit? They're not that great." Yusuke said, crossing his arms behind his head and sinking into the plush leather. "There's nothing that they do in the states that can't be done right here in good ol' Japan."

"Two words: no uniforms. Not that either of you wear the proper school uniforms anyway," Hakumei said, eyeing Kuwabara's uniform, two shades of blue too light, and Yusuke's uniform, which wasn't blue at all.

"Hey, I look better in green."

"Uh huh," Hakumei rolled her eyes, "About foreign music—the lyrics are definitely better. Take 'Enter Sandman' for example."

Hakumei straightened up and cleared her throat. The gentle hum of electronics vanished with her intent to sing, and an eerie quiet rested over them like a wet veil. Yusuke and Kuwabara glanced at each other as Hakumei brought a finger to her lips.

"_Hush little baby, don't say a word._" Her eyes darted to the corners and the shadows sparked with the creaking of the building. "_And never mind that noise you heard. It's just the beast under your bead, in your closet…_" The lights hummed above them, dimming, and before Yusuke knew it, Hakumei was whispering, voice deep and raspy, in his ear. "_In your head…_"

Yusuke jumped and nearly hit the ceiling. Kuwabara burst at the seams, clutching the mic stand for support. "It can't believe you've never heard Metallica before!"

"Shut up! Like I have time to listen to that ridiculous pop band."

"It's not pop. It's metal." Hakumei said.

"You don't really look like the metal-loving type," Yusuke said.

"I listen to a lot of different genres I probably don't look like I listen to," Hakumei said, shrugging again. "Anyway, here's my sample of typical Japanese lyrics."

"Well _this_ oughta be good," Yusuke said, irritated.

Hakumei didn't bother singing or making a beat for the Japanese hit "Romantic Solider." She spoke in mockery of the ridiculous trying-too-hard poetry of the lyrics, throwing the back of her hand over her eyes as if overcome with emotion.

"_Oh soul, dried up by loneliness, right now, let courage bloom! Just like a red rose blooming in the dark earth. Everyone is a soldier, fighting with themselves. Overcoming suffering, looking for tomorrow, soldier of love._"

"Hey, you don't do it any justice if you don't even try," Yusuke said. Hakumei fanned herself and fell backward onto the couch, the momentum swinging her legs up and into Yusuke's lap. He pretended her skirt didn't fly up in his face and pushed off. Her feet hit the floor with a swift thud. "I happen to like that song."

"Seriously?" Hakumei said, eyebrows twisted at Yusuke as she propped herself up on her elbows. "Because it's kind of, well..." She paused, searching for a more delicate way to say it. She got nothing. "It's kind of lame."

"Careful, babe," Kuwabara snickered, "You might hurt his _widdle_ feelings."

"It's not lame. Besides, it reminds me of someone I know," Yusuke said through gritted teeth.

"Hehe, really? So how does Keiko feel about your boyfriend?"

"You realize I can kill you, right?"

"Any day, Urameshi! You just say the words!"

"Do I have to separate you two?" Hakumei asked.

Yusuke and Kuwabara sat on opposite ends of the couch and refused to look at each other. Hakumei shook her head and continued to look through the titles. "Sorry" by Sweetbox. That might be a good one.

Yusuke opened an eye and glanced at her, "So why are we here, again? Didn't you do imitations for the last talent show?" he asked. "Can't you just do the same thing?"

"Yeah, but I doubt Mr. Fujiwara wants us to duplicate our performances," she said. "How'd you know?"

"Keiko played the clarinet. She would have killed me if I missed it. I saw you," Yusuke turned to smirk at Kuwabara, "And you, cutting a rug like some sort of Michael Jackson."

"I thought you didn't like foreign music," Kuwabara said, blushing.

"It's Michael Jackson, come on. He's only famous everywhere."

"I have to agree with Yusuke on that one," Hakumei said.

It went on like this. Talking, discussing music, picking out songs and playing a few. Kuwabara sang Thunderstruck and Hakumei had to explain to Yusuke that ACDC was Australian, and not American. Kuwabara and Hakumei complained about homework because Yusuke never went to school long enough to share that pain, and Yusuke said he could out sing any foreign singer in the karaoke books.

"You want to bet?" Hakumei asked. She had this in the bag if he did.

"Oh ho! It ain't gambling if it's a sure thing," Yusuke said, sitting up. "What did you have in mind, Issei?"

"You can't make a bet with a girl, Urameshi. What if she loses?"

"Uh, then I believe she'll have to pay up."

"Relax Kuwabara. It's not gambling if it's a sure thing, right?" Hakumei took the mic and flipped the song to "…Baby One More Time."

"Hey, I thought I was singing," Yusuke said, reaching for the mic. Hakumei waved her arm around trying to keep it out of his reach.

"Oh, you will be," Hakumei smiled. She stepped around Yusuke and hit play before he could stop her. "I do imitations, remember?"

"I'd like to retract my bet—"

"_Oh ba-by ba-by, how was I sup-posed to-know…_"

"Damn."

It was Yusuke's voice, every intonation, every hit of gravel, every note of don't-give-a-damn. And not only was it his voice, but also his manner. Hakumei sang the song the way Yusuke would sing it, given the circumstances, overdone, overdramatic, and wailing at the top of his lungs. She could practically see him pelvic-thrusting during the chorus, completely hamming it up, though she kept her own pelvis in check.

She went deeper, ha, into the sound of him, focusing on pushing his voice out of her throat, but something was catching at her vocal cords, an offbeat that didn't want to be mimicked—couldn't be mimicked—an offbeat that had been there, hovering over Yusuke since his accident.

"_Tell me ba-by 'cause I need to know now. Oh—_"

She stopped, chilled. Not right washed over the room and she remembered the fear she had felt when she ran into Yusuke earlier that day. She took a step back from the boys. Yusuke and Kuwabara stared at her with their mouths open.

"And this has proven that Yusuke cannot sing better than Britney Spears?" Hakumei said, uncertain. Did they notice the subtle changes in the atmosphere like she did? Was this an awkward situation or was it just her? She put the mic back on the stand and twisted her shirt hem around her fingers. "I win?"

Yusuke and Kuwabara were stunned, wide-eyed, for what seemed like forever. Then, like a volcano preparing to blow, Yusuke bit his lip, holding back a laugh like molten lava, his entire body quaking with the effort.

"That was awesome!" he erupted. "You sounded just like me!"

Kuwabara fell backward, making Hakumei jump, laughing so hard he was crying into the couch cushions. "Yeah, awful," he choked, wiping away the tears.

"It wasn't that bad."

"Not that bad? Iwamoto could have done a better job! You suck!"

"And you did any better? Mr. DCAC?"

"It's ACDC, jackass, and I was awesome."

"Whatever."

Hakumei smiled. So she might be just little bit awkward, but maybe that was okay.

* * *

After an hour of squabbling over karaoke, Kuwabara and Hakumei decided that jazz wasn't their best bet. After being so wound up they just didn't have the patience for it, and they eventually went with "Sorry" instead. After picking the song they went out for burgers. Hakumei didn't have any money, but Kuwabara gave her his fries and after some convincing, Yusuke shared his fries as well, unwilling to part with all of them.

"You're sure you don't need me to walk you home, baby?" Kuwabara asked.

"No thank you. I take the metro anyway. I'll be fine." Hakumei said.

"Leave the girl alone ya pervert," Yusuke said, grabbing Kuwabara's shoulders and twirling him around. "Besides, we go this way." Yusuke waved as he walked, pulling Kuwabara along with him.

Hakumei waved back and started home, smiling. When she was out of sight Yusuke said, "I like the chick, but there's something weird about her, you know?"

Kuwabara nodded. "Yeah, I get a tickle when she talks, but it's so small that sometimes I don't even notice… If we didn't have this project together, I'd never have noticed it at all."

"I wonder if she knows she's got spirit energy," Yusuke said, "It kind of seemed like she was aware of us as well."

"Should we tell the pretty lady?"

"Who? You mean Botan? Man, you really need to get your love affairs in order."

"Shut up."

"Look, the way I see it, Issei's not doing anything different than usual, right? So she's a little aware. It's not like she's going to start hunting demons because we shared our fries with her now is she?"

"Yeah, you're probably right." Kuwabara shoved his hands in his pockets as they crossed the street to the next block. "So…" he said, face glowing, "Hakumei kind of lost track of her legs there for a second."

"Yup."

"Did you see her panties?"

Yusuke's face scrunched together, his shoulders slightly raised, hands out as if asking a question. "Dude, she was wearing tights."

"Cock block."

* * *

Hakumei got home before the Watanabe's. The house was dark, but Hakumei rarely used the lights when she was alone. There was residual light from outside creeping through the windows, but she didn't need it. Hakumei closed her eyes and listened to the settling building she had come to call home. Without the distraction of homework, without Yusuke's infectious laughter and Kuwabara's passion, Keiko's kindness… She was left with Mr. Fujiwara telling her that this place wasn't allowed to be her home any longer, and the glow that she had from hanging out with people outside of class for the first time was gone before she could even take her boots off.

The hum of appliances, the soft plunk of her footfalls on the floor... What was she going to do? She stopped in front of a row of photos hanging in the hallway, pictures of the children taken by their mother before she died.

What would they do?

In Daisuke's photo he was missing his front teeth, which had fallen out and come back in much quicker than his older sisters'. The triplets all had the same pixie haircut and matching swimsuits, polka dots with little ruffles around the bottom.

It had been a long time since her kids had seen the water, but she had been slowly working on getting Mr. Watanabe to fund a trip to the beach by the Shinkirou Temple, a place she had researched as having the most beautiful shorelines closest to the city. As far as she knew, the land was open to the public. She might not have to do more research if Mr. Fujiwara had his way.

She sighed and turned toward her room when she heard something buzzing behind her, no, ahead now. Did she leave a window open? It's been hot out so that was a possibility. The buzzing was louder, and then it stopped as quickly as it began… another buzz followed by a grotesque squishing. There.

What the?

Hakumei turned to see an insect about as big as her fist. Green with a crown of red dots, it was an ugly, slimy, six-legged thing with wings and a needle-like stinger, and it had landed on the door to the triplets' room. Hakumei, doing what any other girl would have done in her situation, screamed and swung her book bag at the bug with enough force to open the door and send it flying into the wall behind it. The sound of the impact had her clutching her ears, but the strange bug had met its untimely end, blood and guts an electric shade of blue splattered across the door and, to Hakumei's chagrin, her book bag.

Gross.

Hakumei was about to get some tissue to clean off her book bag when she heard it again. Buzzing. She looked up and saw Hana's bed crawling with more enormous bugs. Hakumei rubbed her eyes. No matter how many times she blinked, they were still there, crawling around on Hana's sun-shaped pillows. With unnatural calm, Hakumei turned, walked into the kitchen, and grabbed a flyswatter out from under the sink. There was a peculiar gleam in her eye as she entered the triplets' bedroom, looming over the handful of insects that had taken a liking to Hana's bed. She smiled.

No mercy.

She wiped their guts off on the plastic lining of the wastebasket under their desk. Satisfied that their room was quiet and bug free, Hakumei headed toward her own room. She was about to relax and rehearse, until she heard the buzzing again.

* * *

Hakumei sat on Hana's bed, doing homework and swatting at the occasional bug that had escaped her during her previous extermination. That's where Ayame found her when Mr. Watanabe brought the kids home from cram school.

"What are you doing?" she asked as Hakumei was wiping more guts onto the wastebasket liner.

"Just killing some bugs."

Ayame bent over to see the deceased offenders in the trash, but the liner was clean. "What bugs?"

"What do you mean 'what bugs'? There's enough guts in here to string a guitar," Hakumei said, incredulous.

"You're weird Sis," Ayame said before going back downstairs to explain the fact to her siblings.

Hakumei rolled her eyes and went back to work, but the flyswatter was clean.

"What?"

She held the flyswatter in front of her face; the orange plastic was unblemished, as was the wastebasket liner.

"Am I losing it or what?"


	4. It Begins

Thanks to Crazy anime chick since 1993, HigherBeing, butts, Sanity'sRival, and MyLifeInWhole for reviewing! C:

Also, because I wanted to keep this fanfic set in the 90's, and as I'm not a poet, when I chose to have Goro write a poem, I used the lyrics from a more modern song. I just wanted to let you know that I don't own "Rule the World" by Take That.

The links to the fanart are on mediaminer(.org). Just look for my story there (username: lionspride) and they'll be right at the beginning of Chapter 4.

* * *

Nothing good happened when the world quieted itself to her, and Hakumei was losing her mind. The bugs were following her to school. A dozen of them were hanging out on the front gate of Narau Elementary, and Hakumei insisted on walking the kids inside despite Ai and Ayame's complaints about embarrassing them. They were easy to ignore because she could hardly hear. There were only two sounds that came in loud and clear—a distinctive, purposeful step clicking amongst the clumsy, muted stomping of the crowd, and the buzzing of monstrous insects that no one else could see.

While the girls walked as far ahead as they possibly could from their nanny, Daisuke kept stride with Hakumei. He looked up at her, frowning when she jumped at nothing and swatted the air. She finally took to clutching her skirt to keep her hands busy. Daisuke's frown deepened. He stopped walking and crossed his arms over his chest.

"You've been acting strange all morning," he said. "Tell me what's going on."

Hakumei turned, struggling to hear him. Daisuke was tapping his fingers across his elbow, something he did on the rare occasions when he got impatient with her. He wanted an explanation, but she still working on one for herself. She chewed the inside of her cheek for a minute before kneeling down to his level.

"Sorry, I've kind of been having an off day," she said. Her own voice sounded distant from her, soft.

Hakumei rolled her eyes when Daisuke huffed.

"I wasn't finished, Dai," she said. She tried not to yell. Just because she couldn't hear herself didn't mean he couldn't hear her. "I'm not really sure why, but I just have this bad feeling today."

She reached out for Daisuke's hands and he took them. "Like?"

She ran her thumbs over his knuckles. "Honestly it's probably nothing. Sometimes I just get a little paranoid, and I don't want to scare you or anything just because I'm overreacting."

"You didn't scare me!" Daisuke said quickly. Hakumei smiled as he continued. "But… if you're _not_ overreacting?"

"Well," she said. "If anything out of the ordinary happens, anything at all, don't think twice about getting somewhere safe, okay?"

* * *

"Don't look now, Dai, but I think you like-like a nutcase," Ai said when Daisuke joined them inside. She watched Hakumei turn the corner around the gate and disappear into the crowd.

"Crazy," Ayame sang.

"I don't like-her-like-her!" Daisuke fumed. "Come on, Hana." He grabbed his sister's hand and stomped toward class, but Hana dug her heels into the tile outside the door. Daisuke looked over his shoulder. "What gives?"

Hana shook her head. "We shouldn't go in there," she said as Ai and Ayame caught up to them.

"Hey, she said something smart for once," Ai said. "If only Sis were here to take a picture."

"She's not dumb," Daisuke snapped.

"Whoa, touchy," Ayame put up her hands to calm him down.

Hana stared up at the classroom door, unblinking. She took a step back. "We shouldn't go in," she said again.

"Okay, if Hana wants to play hooky, I'm down," Ai said.

"We can't just skip class…" Daisuke said slowly. _I just have this bad feeling today…_ "It'll make Hakumei look bad."

Ai shrugged. "So?"

"Yeah, making her look bad is, like, my favorite pastime."

"That's because you're obnoxious, Ayame," Daisuke said.

Ayame stuck out her tongue, spitting through the gap in her front teeth. Ai laughed. Daisuke snorted in spite of himself, but stopped when he noticed Hana's expression. Eyes wide, mouth open.

"Guys, Hana doesn't look so good…" _If anything out of the ordinary happens, anything at all..._

"Let me see." Ai shoved Daisuke aside and peered at her youngest sister's face. She pulled on Hana's cheeks, stretching them this way and that, squishing them in until Hana's lips stuck out like a goldfish. "Yes," Ai said, tapping her knuckles on her chin when she was done with her inspection, "Definitely sick."

"You think we should take her to the nurse?" Ayame said.

"No way. The nurse would just send the rest of us back to class. I say we hide out in the restroom."

"Yeah, that's great for you three, Ai," Daisuke said. "What am I supposed to do? I can't go into the girls' room. It's full of cooties! I could die."

"Better just you dead than three of us. We can't go into the boys' room either," Ai said.

"Oh ha _ha_. Besides, if she's really sick then making her hide in the restroom all day will make it worse."

"You could just go to class like a good boy," Ayame said. "Sis would be so proud—"

Hana pointed down the hall. A young woman in a pink sweater and sensible shoes stumbled down the hallway.

"Ms. Miyake?" Ai said, squinting.

Ms. Miyake's freckled skin was a sunken shade of gray. Her mouth was open and drooling, exposing a neat line of braces over newly sharpened teeth. Red eyes shook in their sockets before plunging down like lead upon the children.

"Uh—" _Don't think twice…_

She roared and ran toward them, tripping over the crude jerking of her legs.

Ayame screamed as Ms. Miyake swung at her, but Daisuke pulled her out of the way. Ai was already ahead of them with Hana as they sprinted down the hall.

"Where!" Daisuke panted behind her.

"The foxhole!" Ai said over her shoulder, "This way!"

"Foxhole?"

"The playground," Ayame said, tearing up. "You can dig away the sand and crawl underneath. A foxhole."

* * *

Hakumei found herself tapping shoulders on her way to school. The streets were alive with labored breathing and shrieking traffic, but the sound of it was muffled into the background of the elegant click of dress shoes gliding across the pavement, and the insects.

With all the disjointed movement of the people she passed, the clicking was a constant metronome keeping time for the smothered city orchestra. Occasionally she heard the buzzing creep near her, but she kept her eyes forward, stumbling as the listless people bumped into her. If only she could go faster, she'd be safely within the confines of the school gates before they caught up to her, but traversing the crowds in Japan was like wading through packed sticky rice.

Hakumei tried to push down the panic, to swallow it whole and forget about its rancid flavor, but she felt, deep within her core, that she was being followed by—a rush of fabric, the swish of cloth in the wind. Hakumei looked up in time to see the ghost of a shadow hover over the rooftops and vanish.

That was no bird.

She bolted, knocking people over in her paranoid rush to get to safety. If they cried out she couldn't hear it. This was crazy, she knew. Insane. Invisible bugs? Stalked by a boy she ran into in the street yesterday? Now she was seeing shadows fly across a sunny sky. Not to mention the hush that had fallen over the world.

No matter how she tried to reign in her imagination, it kept sweeping her away. She hadn't had an anxiety attack like this since she was small, and trying to quiet her pumping heart only thrust it harder against her ribcage. She needed to lock herself in a restroom stall until rational thought could regain control.

She hurtled herself through the next block. There were still some students milling around the courtyard as she burst through the school gates. Apparently the first bell hadn't sounded yet, but Yusuke was already on his way out. When he saw her running in, he stopped.

"Hey, Issei." He sounded like he was in a library, not like he was about to skip class for the day. "How's it going—"

She flew past him. She needed to get inside, to safety. The bugs had thinned out, and the clicking had faded, but the only way she would be sure was if she had a door to hide behind, a quiet place to bring herself down from her heightened state of panic. When she was little, her doctor told her to think things through logically until the feeling passed, and her hearing would return to normal, but she couldn't talk herself down until she found somewhere safe to do it, where she wouldn't feel exposed to whatever threat she imagined was looming over her.

She felt better as soon as she got inside to change her shoes. Her panting slowed as she pulled at the laces of her boots, hands still shaking. Logic said that it was highly unlikely that the redhead would follow her all the way into the shoe lockers, if he was following her at all. Each of her steps got louder as she climbed to the second floor. He definitely wouldn't come all the way up here. Yeah, that's right. Just think logically. When the first bell rang, she heard it loud and clear as she walked into the classroom. Keiko was arguing with her partner, Goro Oboro, in the corner.

"It's not the poetry that's not working. It's… well, it's you," Keiko said, rubbing her eyebrows.

Ouch.

"What do you mean it's me? I write amazing poetry. Just look at these lines! They're perfect," Goro said. He was attractive, in a bookish sort of way—skinny, with shaggy black hair and blue contacts.

"I just said it's not the poetry. Much to my surprise, the poetry is actually beautiful," Keiko said, exasperated. "You just can't read it like that. It's boring. There's no passion."

"Well, you seemed to do pretty well reading Heart of Darkness for the class the other day. Why don't _you_ read it then?"

"Because," she said, clipped. "I'm the only one of us who knows how to work backstage. You have to either learn how to do all of the technical stuff before the show, or learn how to read with more feeling. To me it seems like reading with more feeling would take. less. effort."

Wow, Keiko was really losing her patience with this guy. Usually she handled things with such poise. Hakumei cleared her throat and they looked up from their dispute.

"H-Hakumei," Goro said, slightly pink. From being called dull in front of an audience, she assumed.

"Hi," said Keiko. "We're just talking about our project."

"I can tell," Hakumei said, as she walked over to them, fiddling with the hem of her shirt. "Is there something I can do to help...?"

Keiko looked at Goro and he nodded vigorously. She handed Hakumei the poem. Looking it over, she mouthed the words to herself. It was titled, "Rule the World."

_You light the skies up above me,  
a star so bright you blind me.  
Don't close your eyes,  
don't fade away, don't fade away._

_You and me, we can ride on a star.  
If you stay with me, girl, we can rule the world._

Hakumei's mouthing became humming, she was already searching out the tune from the rhythm of the words. Something soft, longing, a little sad, but powerful… They planned to rule the world with this love of theirs, after all. The lyrics were a little sappy for her tastes, but at least they were succinct and straightforward. All in all a decent love song.

_If walls break down, I will comfort you.  
If angels cry, I'll be there for you.  
You've saved my soul,  
don't leave me down, don't leave me now._

A song. Now there's an idea. What's more expressive than music? That ought to solve their problem.

_All the stars are coming out tonight.  
They're lighting up the sky tonight for you, for you._

Hakumei looked up. Keiko was smiling, already catching on. Goro looked like it was too good to be true. "Have you considered writing lyrics, instead of poetry?" she asked.

"Consider yourself hired!" Goro said, jumping out of his seat to shake her hand.

"Huh? No, I didn't mean to imply anything. It was just a suggestion—Will you stop that?" Hakumei pulled herself away from Goro, who was thrusting her entire arm up and down with his eagerness. He coughed, excusing himself.

"Well, why not?" Keiko said, leaning against the desk. "You were going to sing for your project anyway. Why not hire us to write a song for you? I'm sure Kuwabara wouldn't mind."

"And we can hire you to sing our song for us, killing two birds with one stone," followed Goro.

"So Goro makes this poem into a song," Hakumei said, handing the paper back to him. "I come up with a way to sing it, and do the performance, and you and Kuwabara work backstage?"

Goro nodded, "I just know your voice will give this the classical touch it really needs to thrive. It'll be amazing!"

"Classical?" Keiko asked, glancing at Goro. "Hakumei's only ever sung pop songs during club."

"Yes, she sings that drivel in club, but when she's practicing in private—"

"Wait, how do you know what I sing in private?"

"It doesn't matter. All we have to do to make this work is get the okay from Fujiwara and Kazuma," Goro said.

"Actually it does matter," Hakumei said. Was he hiding out watching her rehearse after club or something? That's creepy.

"It doesn't," Goro said.

"Leave the teacher to me. I'm sure it won't be an issue," Keiko said. She appeared to be too busy calculating project details in her head to notice their argument. "Besides, it would give us an excuse to hang out outside of school like we talked about."

"No, it really does—you mean, like, friends?" she said, turning to Keiko.

Keiko quirked an eyebrow, "Yeah, of course we're friends."

* * *

The kids burst through the door leading to the playground, a vast expanse of slides, bridges, tunnels, swings and jungle gyms to tickle the fancy of every little kid in school. Their running slowed across the sand, but Ms. Miyake was struggling behind them to get the door open. They moved faster.

Ayame was crying as they followed Ai behind a plastic tunnel to the base of one of the slides, a big yellow thing that spiraled down to the ground. There was a small hole where the sand dipped under the level of the first stair. Daisuke started digging immediately.

"Come on, Ai," he said, ushering her through. She shimmied through the opening and slid down to the bottom. Hana followed behind her.

"Ayame, hurry up," Daisuke said.

The doors slammed shut with a bang. Ms. Miyake was outside with them.

"Daisuke," she sobbed. "What if she finds us? What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know, but she really is going to find us if you don't get in the hole," he hissed, pulling her down and stuffing her into the foxhole.

Chains clinked together as Ms. Miyake stumbled around the swings. And Daisuke scrambled down, curling up with his sisters in the sand. Ai had a hand over Ayame's mouth, tears soaking her bitten-down fingernails. Hana started pushing sand up, trying to block the way out so Ms. Miyake wouldn't discover them, but Daisuke pulled her back with a finger to his lips.

Hana curled into his side, shaking. Ayame pulled away from Ai and threw herself into Daisuke's lap. His shoulder was soaked with tears in minutes. He looked at Ai and held out his hand. She started to reach for it, but stopped herself with a determined scowl.

The slide shook above them and Ai jumped, huddling into Daisuke's other side. He wrapped an arm around her as she took Ayame's hand. Ms. Miyake's shadow filtered in through the gaps in the wood planking. They watched the monster move above them through the floor, hair standing on end, frozen.

A bead of sweat dripped down Daisuke's forehead as he stared, eyes wide with terror, into the possessed face of his teacher.


	5. Invasion

Thank you Sanity's Rival, TomorrowComesToday, Nepheara, Hakudoushi9, Crazy anime chick from 1993, CrazyCreator33, and fowxer for reviewing! And to LovelyLynnz, for shooting me a pm complimenting my story.

Also, I don't know if you know this, but I do take the time to personally thank everyone who gives me a review, and I have a lot of ongoing conversations with you guys. I'm always open for suggestions, and I do accept critique from both a grammar and structural standpoint. Writing is kind of what I do, so I'm not kidding. I can take criticism with some poise, and it's important to me, because even though it's fanfiction, it's still practice. Like sketching for artists.

Anything at all you think I could improve on I would love to hear about. I can't promise that'll I'll use every suggestion, but I love feedback. The thing is with school going on and writing these chapters, well... I've been tired recently and I'm sure it means I'm missing typos and stuff. If you see something as you're reading, just point it out so I can fix it. I promise you're not being rude.

Anyway, here's the next chapter! c:

* * *

Hakumei would have talked to Kuwabara about Keiko and Goro's offer, but he didn't show up to class. She spent the day worrying, anxiety at low tide and licking at the shore of her consciousness. She worried about Mr. Fujiwara and her job, about Goro, about Kuwabara not being there. She worried about the redhead and the shadow from earlier, as well as the insects she kept seeing. She could hear everything just fine now, which kept her from panicking, but without a distraction she couldn't help but feel something was still off.

Club ran a little longer than usual, with everyone trying to figure out what order the acts would go in and who was in charge of handling what equipment. One group had taken it upon themselves to introduce other acts rather than coming up with their own, and was hounding down everyone who had something concrete planned, but Hakumei had nothing to tell them. With Keiko making flyers with the student council and Kuwabara absent, she was stuck alone with Goro, making no progress to speak of.

Apparently Mr. Fujiwara had given the go ahead to join their groups together, and Goro was more than happy to follow Hakumei around and give her suggestions on how to sing his finished lyrics.

"So, how much do you know about music exactly…?" Hakumei asked after a long stream of disastrous ideas.

"You're holding the evidence of my greatness as we speak. This song is going to reach the hearts of hundreds. There won't be a dry eye in the audience if you do exactly what I say. Now, when you get to this line," he pointed at the paper, "You should get really loud and shake your voice a lot…"

It was one of the beginning phrases, second verse. _If walls break down, I will comfort you._ If anything it should be soft.

"Do you mean a crescendo or a rinforzando?" She sighed. "Because I honestly think it would sound better piano. Vibrato will come naturally either way."

"Unh huh," he waved her off and continued to ramble. She huffed, blowing her bangs out of her face. Never mind that she had been practicing music two hours a day, every day since she was eight. Considering the fact that she'd turn fifteen in June, she figured that made her pretty experienced. Apparently it didn't matter, though. She was in the presence of a _genius_.

Ugh.

Eventually she suggested that he go find some other people to add to their group. A song this wonderful didn't deserve to be a capella, and wouldn't it be a shame to just have a recital when they could go grander? Why not include some of the chorus kids in the background?

She tucked the lyrics into her skirt pocket and snuck away while Goro was questioning the other club members. She'd never be able to conduct an entire group of people to perform an unfinished song, and just because she could sight-read didn't mean she could compose. Her plan of action was to sing random notes until she heard something she liked, and then memorize it.

No one in their right mind would want to work with Goro anyway. Stupid, conceited… "When you get to this line you should get really loud and shake your voice a lot." She made a face as she mimicked Goro's voice, embellishing his self-importance. She sounded just like him.

* * *

It was already five when she had packed up to go home, which is why she was surprised that there were still so many people on campus when she went to change her shoes. Immediately her hearing began to dim out. The students around her were as dull and lifeless as the commuters she passed on her way to school. Hakumei took deep, even breaths as she tied the laces of her boots, trying to ignore the upright hair on her neck. She thought logical thoughts.

A sharp buzzing cut through the silence and Hakumei turned to see one of the insects flit to Karin Kamiya's shoulder. How was it that no one else seemed to notice them? It groomed its stinger before crawling into her ear. Karin stiffened for a moment and then slumped over. Disgust swelled up through Hakumei's stomach. The color shrank away from Karin like pepper from a magnet. She was gray. _Gray._ Screaming red eyes scanned over Hakumei as she passed with a muted grunt. Hakumei sat in quiet wonder, blinking.

Surely she hadn't just seen that happen. This couldn't be real. It had to be some kind of dream, a silent horror movie, anything but reality…but her classmates were still sallow-skinned, eyes still bloodshot, mouths still gaping. Everyone had been infected with this strange, otherworldly parasite. They moved, lethargic, as a unit, out into the courtyard as if she wasn't there.

Hakumei stood and followed the others outside in a surreal, soundless haze. The campus was filled with people, and not just students, but teachers too, and businessmen and house wives and homeless people, shopkeepers. All kinds were pouring in from the streets. They were mumbling something, but she couldn't quite make out what it was.

She saw a woman she recognized as a clerk at the convenience store, Chiaki, near school and walked alongside her. Chiaki didn't seem to notice Hakumei's presence as she was examined with morbid curiosity. Her mouth moved with a lazy motion of the jaw that let drool flow like a river down her chin, but Hakumei still couldn't understand what she was saying. With a gulp, Hakumei leaned in. Her heart was beating against her lungs. What was going on?

With her ear in front of Chiaki's mouth, Hakumei could feel her breath against her cheek. It was cold. She closed her eyes, straining to hear.

"Yukimura," Chiaki whispered, and a scream cut through the void.

Hakumei jumped away from Chiaki with a scream of her own just as Keiko ran out into the courtyard, skidding to a halt when she saw the mass of zombies waiting for her. She turned and ran the opposite direction.

"Keiko!" Hakumei called out, clutching her ears. She blinked away tears as she ran after Keiko, leaving Chiaki and the others lumbering behind her. "Keiko, wait!" she yelled as she caught up to her. She took Keiko's hand and pulled her around the corner of the building, ducking just in time to avoid getting slapped in the face. "Hey! Stop! It's me."

Keiko pulled her hand back and leaned forward, hands on her knees. "Oh god, I thought you were one of them," she panted, "What happened to your hands?"

"What?" Hakumei looked down. The palms of her hands were bloody.

"And your ears!"

Keiko's fingers brushed against Hakumei's skin and the sting erupted across her skull and down into her jaw bone. She gasped and jerked away.

"Don't," she said, dizzy with pain. "What's going on?"

"They must be the fanatics they were talking about in the newspaper," Keiko said.

Hakumei didn't know anything about fanatics, but she didn't want to share her theory about why they were currently running from half the city either. Keiko had a logical explanation. Hakumei didn't want to take that from her.

"But why are they after you?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. Mr. Iwamoto, he…he attacked me in the copy room. He kept raving about how I shouldn't associate with Yusuke," Keiko said. "None of it makes any sense. What does Yusuke have to do with this? He wasn't even in class today."

Hakumei's head was reeling. What had Yusuke gotten himself into? Were they after people he was close to? Bile climbed up the back of her throat. "Neither was Kuwabara," she whispered.

Keiko gasped. "You don't think…"

Hakumei nodded.

"No," Keiko said, "No no no. I've seen Kuwabara fight before. He defended me against some thugs from another school. He can take care of himself, just like Yusuke can."

Hakumei peered out around the corner of the building. She couldn't begin to count the number of zombies out there, and they were getting closer. "Against all of them?" she whispered before she saw Keiko's face, near tears. Hakumei pressed the palms of her hands into her eyes and took a deep breath. Her ears were throbbing and her hair felt tight were the blood had dried in it. "They had a better chance against them than we do," she said finally, "What the plan?"

"Yukimura!" Mr. Iwamoto's massive hand curled around the wall behind Hakumei, beefy fingers crushing small dents into the corner. She could hear the concrete crumble to the sidewalk. That could have easily been her face. "You've been a bad girl!"

"Run!" Keiko screamed and grabbed Hakumei's hand, pulling her away from the wall as Mr. Iwamoto swiped at the air behind her. They were getting faster.

They ran all the way around to the back of the building only to be pulled into the hedges by a woman with blue hair and head-to-toe leather. Hakumei could hear the others approaching their hiding spot. She fought to control her breath, to quiet her heartbeat so it wouldn't give her away. Keiko was still struggling against their savior, despite the harsh whispers trying to calm her down.

It was too much noise. They were going to be found out. They would be caught and _killed_. Didn't they understand? Why couldn't everyone just keep quiet? Anxiety attacks were supposed to be irrational states. What was she supposed to do now that the danger was literally hunting her down? Where was her logic now? Hakumei covered her face with her hands. This was just too much.

The bushes around them grew silent as the zombies ran passed them. The blue-haired woman holding Keiko stared at her until Keiko broke free. With a gasp their volume returned to normal. Hakumei flinched at the sudden increase in sound.

"You're that girl Yusuke hangs out with on the roof," Keiko said, struggling to remember the name. "Botan… What's going on?"

"Have they hurt you?" she asked, ignoring Keiko's question. Hakumei whipped around as Botan pulled out a pink compact from her jacket pocket. Her voice… it reminded her of Yusuke's under that accent.

"Not me, but Hakumei's bleeding," Keiko said.

"I'm fine," Hakumei said.

With a worried glance back to Hakumei ears, Botan opened the compact. Hakumei heard static. "Yusuke. Yusuke, come in." She sounded like death.

"What now?"

Hakumei swallowed and scooted closer, leaning in to see Yusuke on a little screen where the mirror should be. She was pretty sure Mr. Watanabe had a mobile phone, but she had never seen a one up close before. She had always figured they were bigger, though, and not shaped like make-up. They definitely didn't have video capabilities. Who was Botan that she'd have this kind of technology?

Yusuke stuttered. "Keiko? And Issei, what the hell?"

"What happened to your ears, Hakumei?" Kuwabara leaned in behind Yusuke and Hakumei let out an audible sigh of relief. He was alive, but there were two others with them, a boy in black and… She froze. The redheaded stranger from yesterday. He leaned closer to Yusuke when he saw her, but his expression betrayed nothing.

"It's nothing. What happened to your shirt?" Kuwabara was half-naked and covered in scratches and bruises, but they looked like they were in some sort of war zone. The sky behind them was smoky and red. He blushed and scratched the back of his head. "Oh, well, you know… Like what you see?" he asked, suddenly flexing.

Yusuke pushed him out of view, "Knock it off."

"I had to pick them up from school," Botan said. "Every infected person in the area is looking for them, and I'm almost certain they mean to kill." Infected… So the insects… They could see them too?

"Did you say _kill_?" Yusuke said.

Kuwabara leaned in. "So that's what my premonition was…" Premonition… She was putting pieces together, but she still didn't have enough information.

Hakumei shook her head. "It's just Keiko," she said. "They're only after Keiko."

"The beasts must be using the Makai whistle to—"

Iwamoto ripped the bushes apart, showering them with leaves and broken twigs. Botan pushed Keiko and Hakumei out of the way as he sent his fist flying into the wall behind them. The concrete cracked on impact. Hakumei barely had time to catch her breath before Botan was pulling them up, "Come on!" and running to the other side of the building.

She collapsed against the wall after they turned a corner. Keiko was interrogating Botan about her relationship with Yusuke. How did she still have the energy to bring up her love life after all this?

"Why don't we work out those details _after _we escape the hundreds of infected humans who want to kill you?" Botan had said infected humans. Hakumei could already guess what the infection was, but why would Botan refer to them as humans… unless she wasn't one…

The invis

ible insects, Yusuke and Kuwabara's voices, Kuwabara's premonition, the redheaded stranger, the zombies, Botan, the beasts and their stupid whistle…all of them were connected. Could the boy in black have been the shadow on the roof as well?

Hakumei leaned her head back against the wall and tried to breathe, but Keiko hauled her up and they were on the move again. The phones were cut. The teacher's lounge had no aid to offer. She was beginning to feel like they were in a horror film, constantly running, turning corners, racing to get ahead, and just when she felt like her legs were going to give out they found themselves trapped in a dead end. Zombies filling in, blocking any hope of escape.

* * *

She was breathing hard, so hard. Her throat hurt, her chest was tight and dry. Her shirt was sticky with sweat. Keiko was the same, panting with harsh determination fierce on her face, hair sticking to her forehead and neck. Hakumei clung to her well-practiced logic. If this was actually happening, which it appeared to be, then whatever irregularity it was followed its own set of rules. She just wished she knew what they all were.

"I'm the person these sickos are following. Let me lead them to one side so you can get away," Keiko said.

That's right. She could run. She could just walk away from this. They weren't after her. They would just let her go. It was one of the rules, she realized. They'd ignore her completely and she could go back to the way things were, studying, singing, watching the kids… Why should she die for a girl she barely even knew? She owed her nothing.

Her hands tightened into fists. "We haven't been running all this time just to abandon you now," Hakumei said. "You're my only friend. I can't just let you get eaten by zombies."

Botan had her fists up, feet apart, coiled to pounce. "Yes, I'm sure you'd make a wonderful distraction, but it's much more important that you survive…"

Important to who? This Botan person, she seemed nice enough, but then, people weren't always what they seemed. End of the line, Botan wasn't like Hakumei. She wasn't like Keiko. She wasn't clueless. She knew the whole story. She knew the logic behind this, and Hakumei intended to find out what it was.

"There has to be something…" Botan continued, eyes resting on a fire extinguisher hanging on the hallway shelf under the window, just passed the first line of zombies. It was a long-shot hope, but it was the only hope left. "Are you—?"

"We'll separate on three," Keiko said.

"Why wait?" Hakumei grabbed Keiko's wrist and bolted to the side, attempting to squeeze passed the mob along the wall.


	6. Chase

Thanks to CrazyCreator33, Kshepps37, Jashin worshipping Jaganist, TomorrowComesToday, Spinning Bird Kick, Crazy anime chick since 1993, MyLifeInWhole, HigherBeing, fowxer, luveydovey78, DrunkFox, sleepingsnowwhite, and Skyla15699 for reviewing!

Sorry for taking so long with this chapter, but it's twice as long and twice as intense as usual. I had such a hard time writing it. So another thanks to Nepheara for nudging me through.

Also, a couple of people pmed me to say that they thought the last chapter was a little rushed, so I edited it and added some more bulk to the end if you want to go back and read it. If more than one person tells you it's rushed, then it's probably rushed, right?

Well, here we go.

* * *

Daisuke woke with the gritty crunch of sand between his teeth, nestled under his sleeping sisters with the imprint of the playground's slotted wood pressed into his cheek. Ai and Ayame drooled into his shirt collar. Hana sat with her legs curled up to her chest on the other side of the fox hole, awake.

"It's safe now," she said, not taking her eyes off the exit.

Daisuke rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "What…? Couldn't they just be waiting for us to come out of hiding?"

Daisuke recalled the blazing red eyes of Miss Miyake. He had been paralyzed with fear. Surely she had seen him, but she turned away and disappeared soon after that. They had waited for the longest hour of their lives, trying not to breathe, muscles locked up as their shoes slowly filled with sand. Was she gone? Was it safe? They didn't know.

_It was Ai that ventured out of the foxhole. Daisuke could see the fear building up inside her until it threatened to bury her alive under the playground. She had to get out. She had to get fresh air, and so she clawed her way up to the surface despite Daisuke's protests._

_It took mere seconds for her to race back down the hole, Miss Miyake springing up from behind the miniature rock wall and scraping at her ankles as Ayame pulled her back to safety, screaming. _

_They were all trembling, close to tears. Ayame had been crying off and on since that morning, trying to stop and not succeeding. Hana watched, vacant. It was as if it was happening far away from her, like she was watching from a distance. She curled in on herself, balled up in the corner._

_A plump, middle-aged woman in a maroon pants suit lumbered outside to join Miss Miyake, followed by a frail-looking woman with a festive sweater—her assistant Mrs. Kudo. They circled the foxhole like wolves for minute after agonizing minute before they lunged for the opening, grabbing at the kids as they tore their way inside, jaws snapping._

_Daisuke dug through his back pack, franticly searching for anything that could be of use. He flung crumpled wads of homework and textbooks out until his fingers wrapped around his only defense. Ayame screamed. Principal Tamiyama had caught hold of one of her pigtails and dragged her back by the hair. _

"_Get your hands off my sister!" he said, slamming a wooden ruler into his principal's face like it was a baseball bat. She shrank back with an animalistic howl, clutching her eye and flailing in the sand like a hooked fish. The other zombies peeled back, confused. Ayame scrambled to the back of the foxhole as Daisuke looked down at his new weapon, panting. It came away red and he dropped it, startled. Ai picked it up again, jaw set._

"No one's come since then," Hana said, poking her head out.

"Hey, careful," Daisuke said, leaning forward. The action woke Ai and Ayame and they jumped, heads colliding with Daisuke's chin.

"What the heck? Are there more?" Ai said searching for the ruler with one hand and massaging her head with the other. She found it half-buried in the sand and picked it up.

"Hana thinks they're gone for real this time," Daisuke said, rubbing his chin.

"Because Hana is the most reliable source of information." Ayame's muffled voice came through her knees, curled up and rocking slightly as she cradled her head.

"She knew we shouldn't go to class today didn't she?" Daisuke said, crawling over to the exit with new courage. Hana was already outside. Everything appeared to be normal.

"For all we know, we could've been safe in class if Hana hadn't taken so long to go inside," Ayame said as she crawled out behind Ai. She looked around as she tried to pick the sand out of her underwear. The school was deserted. "What time is it?" she asked before Ai smacked her shoulder.

"Stop doing that. It's weird," Ai said as she headed for the courtyard. "Sis is the one with the watch. Let's just try to make it home."

"Hey, what about Hakumei?" Daisuke said pulling her back by the shoulder.

"What about her?" Ai snapped, shrugging him off. "We're going home. She'll either be there or she won't." Daisuke clenched his fists, but said nothing.

"And Daddy?" Ayame said.

"We—" Ai hesitated. "We'll try calling him when we get home. For now let's just focus on getting there alive. Come on—would you stop doing that?"

"Ugh, but it feels weird!"

* * *

Hakumei might as well have been a ghost. The zombies leapt straight for Keiko, who brought her palms down hard enough to introduce their faces to the floor. Hakumei used her whole body to fight back. She stomped on toes, she kicked, she hit, she elbowed, she bit, she pulled hair, but there were just so many. They were quick to overpower her.

Keiko screamed as one grabbed her by the hair.

"Leave her alone!" Hakumei jumped on his back, slamming them both into the ground and successfully toppling a handful of others on the way down. She hit the floor and excruciating pain stampeded across her neck and chest. It shot from her shoulder and down her arm, stinging behind her fingernails. The breath pushed out of her as the zombies crashed into her stomach. Everything went black for a split second, like she had been turned off and rewired, something screamed between her ears, and for a moment she couldn't hear anything over the ferocious ringing.

_Now_ they noticed her. Globs of spit spilled on her cheek as one pinned her down, snarling in her damaged ears, leaning on her wounded shoulder. Hakumei thought she heard Keiko screaming in the distance, but within the blurred haze of pain she realized it was her.

She kneed her attacker in the gut. A thud. The solid thud of bone on muscle, but he barely moved. It wasn't strong enough. It wasn't loud enough. As he struggled to keep his grip on her wrists, Hakumei brought her knee up again, harder. He groaned.

Keiko was scrambling to crawl out from under the mob as it was soaked with high-pressured baking soda. Botan had gotten to the fire extinguisher.

Hakumei kneed him again, harder still. She wanted him to feel all the pain that she was feeling. Louder. She wanted him to suffer for putting her through this surreal hell. Another thud. More. A snap, a broken rib. More. Louder. Louder.

_Louder. _

"Get off!" Hakumei brought her knee up again and the thud resonated throughout the room, snaps crackled like fireworks one rib after the other, the organs swam inside him with a nauseating fluid gush as they were forced to the side. She sent the zombie up and flying into the back wall.

"How on earth did you do that?" Keiko asked as she helped Hakumei up.

"I—I don't know. I got angry, I…" She couldn't manage to form the proper words around the pain. Hakumei's shoulder hung lower on her body, the knob of her clavicle stuck out through her skin. Her shoulder, arm, neck, and chest burned like someone set off a bomb inside her. Her face and shirt were wet, and she realized she had been crying since she hit the ground, torrents of water just pouring out of her eyes until the world looked liquid. "I think my shoulder's dislocated—"

"I'm sorry, but we don't have time to get you to a hospital." Botan grabbed her elbow, before Hakumei could protest, pushing her forearm inward and back out. The motion had Hakumei staggering with pain, fading in and out of consciousness. "This will just have to do."

Hakumei screamed as Botan pushed her shoulder back into the socket. The relief was instantaneous, but Botan was ripped from her side before she could breathe out a thank you. Mr. Iwamoto lifted her off the ground like she was nothing.

"Put her down!" Keiko rammed into him with a slap that twisted him around like swirl soft serve.

"A stellar hit, Keiko!" Botan said with the victory sign as she picked herself off the floor. "You should fight on the boxing team."

"Pretty sure…" Hakumei winced, clutching her shoulder, "Boxers don't slap people," Botan made a face.

Keiko stood there, horrified, looking at her hand. "I hit a teacher…" she murmured.

"And he attacked you with scissors," Hakumei said, "Come on."

They ran into the first door they could find and locked it behind them, but Mr. Iwamoto was already pounding on it. He struck the window with his scissors and it exploded into a shower of glass.

"You know what happens when you hit a teacher!" he said as he fit his arm through, scratching it on the remaining shards of glass. Blood streamed down his gray skin and dripped off his fingertips, but he didn't notice. Keiko was his only goal, and he was close like a shark closing in on the kill.

"We better think quickly," Botan said as Keiko eyed the broom cabinet. She ran over to it and grabbed the two brooms inside.

She tossed the broom to Botan, "Keep him busy," she said as pulled her scarf off.

"I've always loved the way you think," Botan said.

Always? Hakumei thought back to their first meeting in the bushes. Keiko could barely remember Botan's name. How could Botan have an opinion on Keiko's thinking if they didn't know each other that well? Hakumei knew Keiko was smart, but she went to school with her, shared the same classes…

Botan caught the broom and ran up to distract Mr. Iwamoto, block his view, keep him out as long as possible. She shoved the broom through the window and hit Mr. Iwamoto in the face with it. Hakumei heard his nose break as he fell back into the mob, but if his bloody arm was any indication, it wouldn't slow him down for long. Hakumei spotted a large shard of glass on the floor by her feet. She took off her own scarf and wrapped it around the flattest edge. A makeshift knife, but a knife nonetheless.

Keiko closed the doors to the cabinet around her scarf before she ran to pull back the curtains. "Up here," she said, and Hakumei and Botan climbed up on the windowsill, leaning against the glass, they hid behind the curtain just before Mr. Iwamoto got back up and busted into the room.

He spotted the scarf right away. "I always knew you weren't as smart as you made us think," he said and the mob swarmed over cabinet, pounding into it until it crumpled in a metal wad on the floor. Hakumei swallowed the rising bile. If they had been inside… Oh… She covered her mouth. She was going to be sick.

"It won't be long until they realize we aren't in there," Botan whispered. "We need to go. Now!" She jumped out, and Keiko followed. Hakumei took a deep breath and jumped after them. Keiko and Botan made a few swings with the brooms while Hakumei ran straight for the door. Did they really think they stood a chance at overpowering all those zombies now that they had a couple of brooms? Were they crazy?

"Don't attack them, run!" she said, waving them out, "Run, let's _go_!"

* * *

The streets were desolate, not a soul on them. Cars were stalled, stopped in the middle of the road, still running. A few were crashed and dented, piling up in the lanes and near the sidewalks, empty and still. Their footsteps were loud against the pavement.

"Where is everybody?" Ayame said, sniffling.

Daisuke squeezed her hand. "Just keep walking."

They went on in silence, afraid that even the smallest noise would send the zombies rushing out in droves from the shaded alleyways. Hana froze, and the others turned to look at her. She pointed to a bicyclist who was pinned between the hood of a car and a fire hydrant, tears welling up and spilling down the sides of her face.

The body bent backward over his crumpled bike, leg caught in the spokes of the front tire. He stared at them with glazed, unseeing eyes as the blood dripped from his mouth and down to his forehead. The back wheel of the bike was still spinning, bent from the accident. It circled around in slow, crooked loops with a dull creak that rang between the hollow buildings.

Ai's eyes were wet and glossy, but she bit her lip and pulled of Hana close before she allowed herself to cry. Ayame leaned to the side and puked, sobbing, hiccupping, trying to breathe between the heaves that shook her tiny body.

"Why is this happening?" she choked out. "What's going on?"

Daisuke couldn't stop the tears, the frustration, the fear, the _helplessness_. What was he supposed to do? He was only eight years-old. He wasn't supposed to have to deal with this. They weren't supposed to have to deal with this. He rubbed Ayame's back and helped her up when she was done. They had to keep moving. Daisuke wiped his face on his sleeve, sniffling. He didn't know what to tell her, so he told her the truth.

"I don't know," he said, collecting Ai and Hana and moving forward with Ayame huddled into his side. He looked back to the body as they left it behind. The bike wheel to the bike had stopped spinning. "I don't know."

* * *

Keiko and Botan led the way as they sprinted down the hall, until Hakumei heard a sickening crunch and Botan lurched to the side. Everything slowed as Hakumei watched. Botan's head knocked to the side, eyes wide, mouth open, losing her footing and falling to the floor. Zombies had jumped out at them from the adjacent hallway, slamming Botan in the face with a metal pipe that rang with the swing. Keiko slid, catching Botan's body before she hit the ground.

"Botan!" Keiko said, shaking her still shoulders, "Botan!" But Botan didn't move. There was so much blood. Hakumei heard every droplet hit the floor with a small splash on the tile. Drip... Drip… Drip...

Hakumei skidded to a halt behind them, hands covering her mouth, eyes wide. Botan was dead. She had to be dead. Hakumei stumbled back. She couldn't believe it. They killed her. They had _killed_ her. There's no way she could have survived that, not when it made such a horrible noise…

Mr. Iwamoto stepped forward, laughing, and Hakumei whirled around. "The community comes together when it's important, see? And correcting bad girls is very important!" They were surrounded. There was nowhere to run.

He raised his scissors, point gleaming in the fluorescent lights, sharp and deadly. There was no way they could take them all. Hakumei saw white. Everything around her faded into a dead, cold silence. No one was coming to help them, and she wasn't strong enough to help herself. All the fight in her washed away, all the determination emptied out of her. She was suddenly tired. Her muscles wept, her shoulder cried her ears were sobbing. Even standing was just… so difficult.

She couldn't keep this up forever, with no end in sight. They just kept coming no matter what they did. This was it. This was where everything came down to a point and cut itself off. Hakumei Issei was _over_. Keiko Yukimura was over. Botan was already gone. A hit to the head. A hit to the head was all it took for the life to be snuffed out of her. Bang, in a matter of seconds. What chance did they have? They were all going to die here, like this. She dropped the shard of glass in her hand and it clattered to the floor with a hollow chime that echoed through the silent hallway. It was too heavy for her now.

Mr. Iwamoto grabbed Hakumei's arm, but just when he was going to plunge the scissors into her heart, electricity burst through the room, knocking the zombies backward in an explosion of light. Hakumei zoomed outward, tapping into a force wholly unknown to her. Sounds came rushing in from all over.

In less than a second Hakumei bore witness to the frogs croaking in the park, the rise and fall of their throats as they bellowed to each other across the lily pads. Ants crawling around the hallways in a line, cat patrolling the alleyways for a meal squeaking in the dumpsters. Birds flying into the night, the subtle swish of their wings beating against the chill air. She heard them all, drinking them in through her tormented ears. She went further, beyond into a landscape she had never dreamed of. Yusuke stared through her with white, screaming eyes. She reached out to him.

"Yusuke!"

She turned toward the voice. Keiko was calling, and he shrank away from Hakumei, the world zooming past her until she was thrown back into herself with a force that made her drop to her knees. Hakumei stared at her hands, flexing her fingers to make sure that she hadn't died, that everything was still working. She was alive… Incredulous, Hakumei looked up. There were bodies everywhere, all returned to their normal color. They were… _They were going to be okay_. She turned to look at Keiko, who was holding Botan with tears running down her face.

"She's breathing," Keiko said, and Hakumei flung her arms around Keiko and sobbed into her chest.

* * *

They stayed like that for a good twenty minutes before Botan was finally able to stand up. She leaned on Keiko while they picked their way through all of the fallen bodies. As Hakumei got up to join them, her foot hit something and she looked down to see the compact lying on the floor. Hakumei tilted her head and glanced back at cyan ponytail ahead of her. Botan must have dropped it when she received that blow to the head. Hakumei bit her lip and picked it up, slipping it into her skirt pocket before following behind them. She had a lot of questions, and she had a feeling Botan had the answers.

They went back to the classroom to get Keiko's things. Hakumei's bag was still in the lockers and she picked it up on the way out while Keiko changed her shoes.

"Hakumei, you live kind of far from here, right?" Keiko said as she slipped on her loafers. "You should come back to my place. My parents wouldn't mind…" Keiko stopped and Botan looked up at her.

"What's wrong?" she said.

"What if they're not okay? I have to get back there. I can't believe I didn't think about them."

Hakumei's face paled. The kids! She looked outside. It was already dark out, the kids were supposed to be picked up from cram school hours ago, and what if this zombie epidemic effected them as well? They could be hurt or worse. "I have to go get my siblings!" she gasped, spinning on her heels.

"Wait!" Keiko said, pulling a pen from her pocket. She grabbed Hakumei's wrist, but Hakumei pulled away.

"Keiko, I have to go. _Now._" She struggled in Keiko's grip, but she only held on tighter, yanking Hakumei closer.

"Not without my number, you don't. Hold still," Keiko drew a small map to her place from school on the back of her hand, as well as her address and phone number. "This is where I live, in case something happens," she said. "Otherwise—"

Hakumei was running out of the school building and toward Narou Elementary before Keiko could finish. There was no sound save for the steady click of her boots on the sidewalk. The usually busy streets were still, but she didn't stop to look around. Her mind was focused on one thing and one thing only. _She had to find them._ She had to find her kids, but when she got to the school, she found it deserted. The gates were still open, and the doors were unlocked.

Hakumei walked through the empty school building. The lights were still on, casting an artificial glow over bulletin boards filled with crayon drawings and gold stars. There was no one there. No one in the classrooms. No one in the front office, or the cafeteria, or the restrooms. She called for them only to have their names echo back at her through the colorful hallways. There was just… Just no one. Hakumei slammed the side of her fist into the wall. Where were they?

Her head snapped up. If they had tried to get home on their own they would've gone to the metro station. She just hoped they made it there in one piece.

She ran the three blocks from Narou to the station, body and lungs numb. She didn't allow herself to slow, jumping over the barricade and racing down the platform. Silence followed her everywhere. No one was in the ticket booths, and no one was waiting for the train. Hakumei checked her watch. It should already be waiting at their usual stop, but the tracks were empty. Her footsteps echoed as she walked, fluorescent lights flickering above her with a static buzz. They had to be here. This was the only other place they would have gone to. They would've tried to get home. If the train wasn't running, they would've stayed here until it was fixed. She knew it.

So where were they?

Hakumei tripped over herself when she saw four little heads lumped together over the back of a bench, waiting for a train home that wouldn't come. "Daisuke!" she shrieked, and one of the heads stirred.

"Hakumei?"

Her heart skipped a beat. It was Daisuke's voice. "Hana, Ai!"

"Sis is here?" Ayame sat up and looked over the bench. "Sis!"

Hakumei flew to the bench and flung her arms around them. "Ayame! What happened? Are you hurt?" She checked them over for injuries with frantic hands. Their clothes were torn, their dirty faces were streaked with tears, but they were alive, and smiling, and okay. She hugged them again, showering them with kisses until they jumped onto her sending them crashing to the pavement.

She hadn't wanted to move, piled under their tiny bodies, clawing at her clothes like she would disappear if they let go. She could lie their forever just to listen to them breathe against her, safe. She buried her face into Daisuke's hair as he cried into her collarbone. "Shh," she said.

"I'm here."

* * *

They eventually made their way back to Keiko's shop. Hakumei called on his cell phone and at the house, but had to leave a message both times. The kids were bathed and dressed in big t-shirts that belonged to Keiko's parents. They had the logo to their family ramen shop plastered on the front. They fell asleep in the living room with Botan during a game of Go Fish. She was borrowing a pair of Keiko's pajamas, snoring on the couch with a nine of spades between her fingers. Her hair was down and her head was wrapped with a stiff bandage. Questioning her would have to wait until tomorrow.

Hakumei fell asleep on Keiko's bedroom floor, hair still wet from the bath and dressed in one of Keiko's frilly nightgowns. Her first sleepover and it was the result of a city-wide disaster that was already making headlines on late night news. School canceled for a week, they had said. Sirens blared all night, but Hakumei slept through the noise.

They got the call the next morning. Yusuke was at Kuwabara's house.

Two days later he was awake, the kids were back at home, and Hakumei was wearing her own clothes, the compact in the pocket of her jeans. She stood on the sidewalk outside. Keiko had called her over to come visit. Botan was doing some explaining.


End file.
